Have you ever had a friendly (or at least friendly-ish) debate or discussion with someone who was kind, intelligent, and generally courteous, yet they just couldn’t conceive of, much less embrace the notion that after carefully listening to and considering their position, you both A) understood it accurately, and B) disagreed with it reasonably?

No matter how many times you might strive to graciously demonstrate that you’ve really, truly heard and understood the pertinent details of their position or argument, they just can’t believe that you really understand what they’re saying because, of course, if you really understood them, you would agree with them.

So on and on and on they go, repeating the same statements, arguments or positions again and again and again, sometimes with slight variation and sometimes with greater, with all reiterations aimed at correcting the lack of understanding that you must be suffering from since you do not agree with their point or conclusion.

We can all tend toward this to some extent. We all have to be careful.

After all, a good “iron sharpens iron” debate or discussion can benefit greatly from the careful presentation (and subsequent critique) of alternative angles or takes on the topic of consideration, and repetition can certainly be a valuable tool in learning or conveying a message. Trying to help one another to better understand a position by presenting multiple clarifying variations on a point or theme can be a very good thing, and we should all be open to that approach as we strive to dive deep into the sort of thought and conversations necessary to true intellectual progress and development. This healthy desire to pursue clarifying detail in the form of argument tweaks and polishing here and there is not what I’m warning about.

What I am targeting here is the tendency of many to believe that if they just repeat their “obviously true” position or argument enough times with enough clarifying alterations, anyone really listening to them will eventually and inevitably agree with them.

This naive approach to thought, debate, and politics in America seems to be playing a major role in propelling any number of bad ideas forward, including a movement calling for a “Convention of the States” to “take back America” and bring it back to its “founding principles” by way of State representatives gathering together to modify or “clarify” the meaning and message of the U.S. Constitution.

Because, you know, if we just repeat ourselves with a little more clarifying language, then people who currently don’t seem to care at all about what’s actually written in the Constitution will come to understand, appreciate, and obey the meaning of the new words that we add to it through a Convention of the States.

Because if we just repeat and elaborate a bit upon the details already contained in the Constitution, then those disregarding the clear meaning of the language of the present Constitution will finally see and comply with what is clearly written in the new version.

Because if we just explain a little more vividly the things already excruciatingly clear in the Constitution, then those who currently refuse to submit to the crystal clear limitations conveyed in the present Constitution will submit to the same limitations as conveyed in the new Constitution.

Oh yeah, that’ll work.

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A Constitutional convention to tighten up the language so that which is presently clear can be made really, really, really clear?

That makes perfect sense.

…if you believe that harmonious, compliant agreement is an inevitable consequence of proper reading comprehension.

But it isn’t, is it?

Compliance and obedience are matters of the spirit.

A spirit of rebellion against a set of clearly presented prescriptions and limitations usually isn’t a result of poor reading comprehension. It’s a matter of nature, which is why the Gospel-fueled Great Commission of Jesus Christ is central to the social, cultural, and political nightmare scenario in which we find ourselves in 2016 America.

We have heard and had presented for centuries in this land the crystal clear commands of God, whose Nature as reflected in His Law unshakably binds everyone and everything in His creation…including America.

We have Bibles everywhere.

We claim His name all the time.

We proclaim ourselves to be an “exceptional” wonder on His earth; so favored, apparently, that we are entitled to openly disregard His Word in detail in any area of life that we choose, from law and education to economics and civil government.

We proudly and vigorously trample the most clear and consequential of His commands.

We proudly do all of these things in America despite the crystal clarity of the life-giving words and warnings lovingly provided by God in His Word, a Word that abounds in its written form all around us.

Reading comprehension is not our problem.

Reading comprehension is not the problem of those who presently ignore the clear content of the Constitution.

And much more importantly, reading comprehension is not the problem of those in America (many of whom claim to be “conservative Christians”) who presently ignore the clear content of the Word of God.

A new Constitution can no more save us than the old one did.

The Founding Fathers are not the gold standard in law-givers.

The Constitution is not the gold standard in law.

Every single point on which the Founders or the Constitution deviate from or dismiss the Word of God, the Founders and the Constitution are wrong.

Invariably, dangerously, and destructively wrong.

That’s the reality of life here in 2016 America and everywhere else in God’s creation.

That’s the reality made plain in His crystal clear, unbreakable, and sufficient Word….a Word that we have been reading and ignoring in America for a very long time now.

Until we repent of that, nothing can (or should) save us.

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I second Nicklas. I’m very conflicted as I don’t want to see the country go Islamic. (Islamic organizations in Homeland Security, State Department, FBI). On the other hand we have more than pushed the envelop. I can’t stand what we have become. We sure have elected some unrighteousness people. I guess the best thing I can do is live a repent up life,